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GTFS Realtime Changes

The GTFS Realtime Specification is not set in stone. Instead, it is an open specification developed and maintained by the community of transit agencies, developers, and other stakeholders who use GTFS Realtime. It is expected that this community of producers and consumers of GTFS Realtime data will have proposals for extending the spec to enable new capabilities.

To contribute to GTFS Realtime, read the Specification Amendment Process and follow the discussions in the open issues and pull requests on Google's Transit Github repository (google/transit).

The official specification, reference and documentation are written in English. If a translation to a different language differs from the English original, the latter takes precedence. All communication is performed in English.

Active Proposals  

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Recently Merged Proposals  

Recently merged proposals that are now features of the official GTFS Realtime specification. See the complete Revision History for more.

Add cause_detail and effect_detail to Alerts

#332 by mckenzie-maidl-ibigroup was merged on Jun 26, 2022

  • Adds descriptions to cause and effects of Alerts

GTFS-rt : wheelchair access update

#340 by flaktack was merged on Jul 25, 2022

  • Adds realtime information on trip accessibility
  • If provided, overwrites trips.wheelchair_accessible in the GTFS Schedule dataset

Feature/image in alerts

#283 by gcamp was merged on Nov 26, 2021

  • Adds a field of a URL link to an image (ex. photo or map) to be displayed in apps’ service alerts, in order to enhance comprehension of the alert
  • Changes include: enforced size limit of image, one image per alert, and ensuring URL changes if the content or language of the images changes

Add GTFS-NewShapes as experimental

#272 by ericouyang was merged on Aug 30, 2021

  • Ability to update route shapes in real time to reflect detours
  • Route updates are either reflected by referencing an existing shape_id or by defining in real time a new shape as an encoded polyline

Add departure_occupancy_status to TripUpdate

#260 by jakehoare was merged on Apr 14, 2021

  • Provide the predicted occupancy of transit vehicles at future stops based on current or historical data